Star Wars: Empire at War - Forces of Corruption Update

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We get an updated look at the Underworld in a galaxy far, far away.

By Dan Adams

We visited LucasArts today for an updated look at some of their line-up including the upcoming expansion to Empire at War entitled Forces of Corruption. The guys at Petroglyph are going bigger with this installment adding a new Underworld faction with a completely different style of play, new Rebel and Empire units, bigger maps, and more features and options for setting up land battles.

Today LucasArts put the focus on getting to know the new Underworld faction a bit better. These guys are the scum of the galaxy. Led by the morally bankrupt Tyber Zann. He's one of the biggest and most influential criminals around. He's hatched a master plan to gank the newest Empire toy: the Super Star Destroyer Eclipse. This bad boy has a nasty weapon nearly as powerful as the recently destroyed Death Star and Tyber figures having such a toy in his collection might buy more power than he could otherwise accumulate.

Our first introduction to Tyber Zann today showed off how much charisma and influence the man is supposed to have. This particular level was set on a prison facility on the planet Kessel. Zann and his sidekick Urai Fen blasted their way through the guard forces by first using Zann's ability to bribe and take control of enemy forces. With a little bit of hired help, he was then able to come in contact with some of the rampaging prisoners who immediately joined Zann and his attempt to get out of the prison.

A pretty large force of criminals had built up towards the end of the level, which was a good thing since some of the new Empire units, the Dark Troopers, swept into the area and started putting serious hurt on the escaped prisoners. These bad ass units come equipped with different types of weapons including an incredibly powerful chain gun that is particularly useful for taking down infantry. Basically, all of the prisoners suddenly turn into a distraction for the fleeing Zann who ran from battle and towards the waiting Millennium Falcon to lift off the planet. If any of the prisoners gathered to facilitate his escape are left over at the end of the map, Zann is nice enough to kill all of them to make sure his flight isn't compromised.

That's basically the idea behind the Underworld. They're bad men that corrupt. In fact, corruption is how they're entire campaign on the galaxy map operates. In order to gain money, they send saboteurs to planets to corrupt the current system. That spy immediately begins siphoning money from that planet which slows down production and increases unit costs. Once the corruption has been spread, a noxious yellow gas surrounds the planet and any travel lines between any other corrupted planet.

One of the cool things about this is that the Underworld takes advantage of the corrupted chain of planets to travel freely about the galaxy. Once a planet has been corrupted, forces can move through a planet's space without having to stop and fight any hostile forces along the way. Instead, they're given the opportunity to bribe they're way through any blockade and access worlds farther into the galaxy that aren't directly linked to the Underworld controlled planets.